Giraffe World Kitchen, Norwich

A few weeks ago I needed to head into Norwich with Erin to get a Mother’s Day present and a couple of other bits. Normally if we do this I take her a sandwich or something and I grab myself something quick to eat. However, I felt like having lunch out with my girl but we hadn’t planned on anywhere to go. As we were walking by, I noticed that Giraffe had a children eat free offer! How could I resist?

We went for lunch at 12 on the dot, even though Erin was fast asleep. Typical! Still, I was determined to attempt lunch. The restaurant was very quiet at this time which I was thankful for. Lunch out with a toddler can go all kinds of ways.

Having never been to a Giraffe branch before, I didn’t know what to expect from the menu. I didn’t even know that the full name of the restaurant was Giraffe World Kitchen. There was so much choice. I have to say though, I played it really safe with a burger (£9.95). This is the kind of place you go to though when the people you’re with all fancy something a bit different. I ordered the salmon and sweet potato fries for Erin.

The food only took 10-15 minutes to come out and it was delicious! My burger was cooked to perfection and the fries were crispy! Erin ate all of her sweet potato fries and a lot of her salmon. I think she’s only had it once before so I was really impressed with how much she ate! Erin’s free meal consisted of a main and a dessert (it was supposed to come with a drink but we weren’t offered one) so I chose a chocolate brownie and ice cream for her. I obviously had to have one myself too (£5.50). I was really glad I did too as sharing one with Erin wouldn’t have happened. She devoured hers and finished mine.

All of the staff made a real fuss of Erin which was lovely, even when she wanted to chase one of them round in circles. They didn’t mind one bit though!

There was only one aspect of out visit that let it down a little bit. This was the baby changing facilities. The baby changing can be found in a really dingy looking corridor near the kitchen (I think). The changing room is actually doubled with the disabled toilet, with other toilets being upstairs. Now, I have no problem with the disabled toilet and the baby changing being together. However, because people couldn’t be bothered to use the other toilets we had to wait quite a while to use the facilities.

Overall though, I really enjoyed my lunch out with Erin. It’s not often we go just the two of us and we both had a great time.

I’m a big supporter in principle of independent restaurants but there’s no arguing with the fact that all too often it is much simpler and more reliable to take children to a chain restaurant. I took mine to a Giraffe some years ago and it was a great experience.